a peak from April to July, near Cuba (Howell- 

 Rivero and Juarez F., 1954); at a peak May- 

 through July in Cuban waters (Gorbunova and 

 Salabarria, 1967). 



Tuna ovaries in advanced and spawned 

 stages were collected in the eastern tropical 

 Atlantic in January through April, September, 

 and December (fig. 3). Marchal (1963) found 

 95 juvenile skipjack tuna in the same area 



during February, March, and May. Richards 

 (in press) found 427 larvae throughout the 

 tropical Atlantic from February through April, 

 and August through October, but the sizes of 

 the larvae he examined differed widely between 

 individual stations, and no size pattern emerged 

 that could be related to growth. 



Tuna ovaries in advanced and spawned stages 

 were collected in the western tropical Atlantic 



100 - 



EARLY DEVELOPING (STAGE 1) 



ADVANCED (STAGE 3) 



(11) (48) (124) (8) 



IOJJJJJ1 111 1 11 11 1 



DEVELOPING (STAGE 2) 



SPAWNED (STAGE 5] 



(1) (28) (19) (11) (20) 



JAN 



FEB 



MAR 



APR MAY 



JUN 



JUL 



AUG 



SEP 



OCT 



NOV 



DEC 



Figure 3.— Monthly percentage distribution of developmental stages of the ovaries of mature skipjack tuna from the 

 eastern tropical Atlantic. No ovaries were collected in May through July. 



